Communication Matters – Hiring an Assistant

Reading Time: 2 minutes

All great relationships have one thing in common: solid communication. Just think about it for a second. The reason you and your closest friends get along so well is because you communicate in a similar way. Or even think about a relationship that went wrong…was communication not one of the reasons it didn’t work out?

In order for any type of relationship to work, the communication style and strategy has to be solid. This definitely includes when you work with a virtual or personal assistant.

When you communicate, expectations can be set and also measured. It eliminates the probability of multiple misunderstandings and bridges a level of comfort between both parties. This is especially important when you work with a virtual assistant, as this person may live in another state or even another country!

Our brains naturally try to fill in gaps where there is misunderstanding.

Think about how quickly things can spiral out of control if you leave your virtual assistant to just figure it out!

So how can you ensure you both are on the same page? Check out our communication tips below:

At the beginning of the week, send a list of your required deliverables and when you expect them. If you don’t put a date on it, the VA may assume a date later than your expectation.

At least once per week, you and your virtual assistant should touch-base to discuss HOW things are going. Hiring international assistance doesn’t mean you can’t communicate effectively. There are multiple communication systems that can be utilized these days!

When you communicate via email, try to keep it down to one or two topics per email. That way when you look for a status update you can refer to the email thread related to that task. The absolute worst way to waste time is digging through emails!

If you use voice to text, double check your message before you press send. A complete time waster for a virtual assistant is trying to decipher what you intended to say.

The cloud is a beautiful thing so please make use of it! Try using shared systems to store important and often needed documents. Eliminate wasteful questions like, “I know you sent this a few days ago but I don’t have the time to find it…may you resend it?” Your virtual assistant doesn’t mind doing this for you but please remember that they will likely start the timer to search for what you need.

Use a project management system to check things off of your virtual to-do list. This will eliminate the need to email status updates for your projects.

These are just a few of the ways to communicate effectively when you hire a Virtual Assistant. Do you have any other suggestions?